RF amplifiers, circulators, mixers, and other electronic devices which incorporate one or more filters and one or more attenuators are known. Although a filter and an attenuator may be used in such devices, the filter and the attenuator are made and used as discrete components. The need to use two different devices to accomplish the attenuation and filtering functions is a less than efficient use of available space in an electronic device. In view of the ever increasing demand for more compactness in large-scale integration electronic devices, it would be desirable to have a single microchip device which provides both signal attenuation and frequency filtering, but which requires less space than two discrete devices.
The manufacturing of chips that provide only signal attenuation is different from the manufacturing of chips that provide only frequency filtering. Therefore, it would also be desirable to have a method for readily producing a chip device that provides both attenuation and filtering functions.